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@&roid very fine technique on those coatings. If one doesnt want to do the very very thin coatings on a hot hot grill, after the first thin coating and heat , let the surface cool , then apply the next thin coating and heat up until cured. cool down , and repeap this takes quite a bit longer , heat , cool . heat but you dont have to hurry so much evening out the oil each time.

Miserable day. I awoke this morning at 6:30 and crawled to the kitchen around 7:00 to find I had no water supply. Now 8:30pm and still none. A major city-wide failure. I've never known anything like it. So no cooking. I managed to find a tiny pocket of the city with a functioning watered restaurant and ordered this for delivery. I don't know what you call it but the restaurant and I call it a Sichuan flavour boneless chicken and salad wrap. They offer it sauced in four spiciness levels: un-spiced, mildly spiced, damn spicy and what I would call volcanic but for some reason, they call 'tequila'. I went for damn spicy. And damn fine it was, too, despite its looks.

It’s really quick to clean up. Just squirt on a bit of water while it’s still warm. Use a metal spatula to scrape any bits left on to the back and into the grease trap. A bit more water and wipe down with paper towel until it’s clean. You can use a bit of washing up liquid if needed but generally plain water will do. A good seasoning coat helps massively with clean up - it makes it like wiping out a non stick pan.

No problem at all: It’s pretty straightforward, just takes a bit of time (about an hour in total) 1. ⁠Wash the griddle with warm soapy water, dry it thoroughly 2. ⁠Heat on high until any leftover packing grease has burnt off and the colour changes in the spots over the burners, they tend to go brownish 3. ⁠Keep the burners on high. Use an old tea towel to really lightly rub in about 2 tbsp of flax seed oil (needs to be food grade with no additives). You want the thinnest coat possible, almost like there’s nothing there. Work quickly so you don’t get any thicker parts, just spread it out across the whole surface and then lightly polish it so there are no streaks. It’ll start smoking right away. 4. ⁠Let that burn in, after a few minutes it’ll stop smoking and the colour of the top will start to darken slightly. 5. ⁠Repeat steps 3 and 4 as many times as you like. Work the oil into the corners and on the inside and outside of the upward facing edges of the grill. Once it’s all black and smooth looking you can let it cool down and it’s done. The main thing is keeping the coats as thin as humanly possible, you really don’t want to see any streaks or pools of oil. I’ve seen a load of videos on YouTube where they put tons on and you can just tell it’s going to be a mess. Much better to do 8-10 really thin coats than 3-4 thick ones as thicker seasoning won’t bond well to the grill and will just chip and flake off. Once it’s done regular cooking should keep on top of it but you can always top up with a few coats of flax seed if needed. I’d avoid doing anything acidic on it for quite a while until it’s really set in well (so no tomatoes, vinegar, wine, etc). If you need to, washing up liquid is fine to use to clean it but in reality just plain water and a good scrape should do the trick if you clean it while it’s still hot after cooking.

Mayo with lemon juice and dill was my Mom's go to salmon recipe in the 70's

I have to agree, Iraqi dolmas are the best dolmas. That tray served three of us as a main course Tuesday, 7 as a generous first course today and then I sent three people home with leftovers. The original recipe I made had a half pound of meat for all those portions. Much lighter and fresher feeling than farci nicoise. Here’s the Video I followed, or at least adapted. I really like this middle eats channel, I think he makes very flavorful food

I've never had one, but I've seen youtube vids of enthusiasts introducing them to others. The general reaction is "too many layers of bread folding over itself". Which is sort of what I thought. For the record I like a lot of Taco Bell items.

I want to know how one cleans it.

Yes, I've seen 油泼扯面 (yóu pō chě miàn) translated as 'hot oil noodles', 'slippery oil noodles' 'oil-sprinkled noodles' and others.

Yikes! https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/italian-pistachio-fior-di-latte-gelato-style-frozen-dessert-080323 I find it curious that both flavors contain coconut oil, but coconut is only listed under 'may contain' instead of 'contains'. I have heard that coconut oil can be so thoroughly processed as to have allergens removed, but it still boggles my mind 🤷‍♀️

Sausages with peppers and onions. Done rapidly before it started to rain. Even got the thing cooled down and the cover on. Serves with corn on the cob and tater tots. Fast dinner before kid activities

@&roid are you willing to share your seasoning method? I pulled the trigger and my Blackstone will be here Friday and I'm dying to get the same gorgeous finish!

Yes indeed. The webs have people who want attention and may not know a darn thing The dialysis center/renal doc will have dietitians who know their stuff.

Beef fried rice with mushrooms tonight. this thing is amazing! So quick and easy doing a big meal like this, super tasty and clean up was a doddle.

There was/is a decent Chinese restaurant in Tucson called Fatman Kitchen. One of the chefs was from Xi'an and their menu just calls the noodles "Xi'an Oil Splashing Noodles". No mention of Biang Biang there, although a local newspaper review did make that association. 🙂 They were delicious!

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Pizza from Pizza Nights by Alexandra Stafford. This recipe is written for a half-sheet pan and is listed in the book as Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Pizza for a Crowd. It’s a pan pizza crust, topped with Everything But The Bagel seasoning and baked, with the toppings (chive cream cheese, smoked salmon, capers, red onion and dill) added post-bake. No crowd here, but I had a ball of pan pizza dough that needed to be used so this was a good option. I only topped this piece and will use the rest of the focaccia-like pan for sandwiches.

@Dejah no matter what you do , check all the information you get from the internet even @ eG w the dietitian that directly deals w renal failure patients , if you can. information here is far more reliable than the internet at large. renal failure , subsequent dialysis , if a serious matter . but the good news is that the situation has been figured out by professionals for a long long time , thus , confer with them . its science , not influencer hocus-pocus . however , dietitians can be a bit weak on ' flavor ' work from what the patient likes , check the Na, K, PO4 , then add flavor.

You definitely got a better deal! I purchased mine at a fundraiser for a good cause, so I didn't mind paying a bit more than I usually would for a used book. 🙂

@Dejah, SpiceTrekkers said: We don't add phosphorus or potassium to our blends, but they may be present in small amounts in the spices themselves. Since the spices added to recipes represent only a tiny fraction of the total amount of ingredients, the amounts are not listed. Because most of our blends do not contain salt (aside from our zaatars, our rubs, dukkha, and, of course, our salts), there is no link for salt free blends except the direct link to our online boutique that will give your friend access to our products’ descriptions and ingredients list: https://spicetrekkers.com/en-ca/store

If you buy (or bought) the onion, make sure to wrap it well. That one really permeates!

Free Tomatoes ... fun! Amazon sent me the wrong tomatoes, so I didn't have to pay for them. I ordered whole, peeled tomatoes. These tomatoes were packed and shipped from Modesto, CA, and were mislabled as whole, peeled tomatoes. They were sent to Houston, TX from Modesto, and then to an Amazon warehouse in Mississippi, and from there they made their way back to California, just a few miles from where they were grown and packed. I'll use some of these in a soon-to-be-made chile.

Thanks for letting us know. It was never a big issue. Irish pubs have that effect. Love them!

So you guys had me second guessing myself about the Guinness, so I got in touch with my son who lives in Sydney and asked him what we had to drink there. It turns out you were right, I did have a Guinness but the photo I had taken was of his Smithwicks beer brewed in Kilkenny. Hope that’s all cleared up now.

Hi Dejah, I haven't been in Egullet for a long time, but logged in specially to answer this. Actually one of the reasons for not being on Egullet so much is cooking for a dialysis diet and how restrictive it is. My husband has been on hemodialysis for the last 14 years and I'm the cook in the household, so I can give perspective from my experience. (Not a nutritionist, but had to read a lot about this over the years!) Potassium is the biggest issue and the item you most need to restrict as it builds up in the body and levels that are too high can be fatal (though over time dialysis patients tend to build up a tolerance and can end up being okay with levels in the blood that would kill a "normal" person). Google high potassium foods and make a list of what you need to avoid or severely limit. By the way, the USDA nutritional database can be a highly useful resource. But off the top of my head, avoid or restrict: Mushroom Tomato Green leafy vegetables Peanuts, other nuts, dried beans and legumes Citrus fruits Stone fruits such as peaches Bananas Potatoes (but Google "leaching potatoes" to make them more possible to serve by removing some of the potassium). Salt substitutes Coca cola Chocolate and cocoa Honey Sodium in general is not generally THAT much of an issue. At the risk of sounding elitist, nutritional guidelines are usually written for the lowest common denominator, and a lot of people can be either not that smart and/or routinely consuming a diet filled with processed and extremely salty food. The recommendations for avoiding salt is IMO aimed at such people. (This observation is based in my husband observing other patients and their dietary habits over the last 14 years as the vast majority COMPLETELY fail to follow any of the dietary restrictions). A bit of salt in a dipping sauce, as soy sauce in the dish you are cooking, or sprinkled over something is not going to be life changing and can make the difference between enjoying ones food or not. The main issue for most patients of too much salt is that it is thirst inducing, making one want to consume more liquid, and if liquid is being removed from the body only via dialysis, routinely turning up for dialysis with too much liquid in the body is bad because: - it puts extra strain on the heart - it can lead to extremely painful cramping during dialysis as liquid is being removed from the blood but there is a a higher amount of liquid still in the muscles - if there is a really high amount of liquid in the body, it might not be possible to remove it all during one dialysis session, putting even greater strain on the heart. Phosphorus: You have a difficult balancing act between meat, fish and eggs containing phosphorus, which should be limited, but it being advisable to follow a high protein diet. You can't square a circle, and you can drive yourself nuts trying to do so, so don't worry about it too much, and concentrate more on providing the protein. What you can do though is concentrate on avoiding other high phosphorus foods, such as preserved meats such as salami and the like. Lentils and dried beans also have a lot of phosphorus, but I think you wouldn't be serving that sort of food all that much anyway... If in doubt, phosphate binders are available which can be stirred into water and consumed with a high phosphate meal. My husband does this once in a blue moon when he REALLY wants to eat South Indian food, such as dosa, dal, etc. For what its worth, I usually cook Chinese and Indian food at home. The vegetables I use the most tend to be green or red peppers, fresh green beans, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower. Also okra, bitter melon, Chinese or Indian gourds such as winter melon/ash gourd, ridge gourd and the like. Onions, ginger and garlic, of course. I use what I consider a standard amount of salt and soy sauce, and tend to thicken north Indian dishes by stirring in high fat yoghurt at the very end after turning off the heat instead of the more common practice of thickening dishes by cooking tomatoes down at the beginning. Either that or leave them runnier than they would normally be. I have no issues cooking with bought Thai curry pastes and canned coconut milk, but tend not to add extra fish sauce so as not to make it too salty. Hope this helps.

We are just getting into berry season here and it is a huge industry in this area - a lot is grown for commercial purposes ie. frozen berries, jams, jellies, etc. There are still plenty available at u-picks, farm stands and local farmer's markets. Strawberries are the current crop, soon to be followed by raspberries, then blueberries which last well into fall. Then, around the beginning of October, cranberries are harvested.